Le Choix

Conservatives have been constantly, and successfully, chipping away at women's right to choose at every opportunity. They haven't been able to overturn Roe v Wade yet, but they make it more difficult for women to manage their own reproductive health on a regular basis. Obviously, the GOP is mostly to blame, but conservative Democrats, and spineless ones, often acquiesce. This week started with a powerful post from Nita Chaudhary and Shaunna Thomas explaining why birth control matters for more than half the population of this country (and to men who support women).

Birth control matters to women. This is not an opinion. It is a fact. But you wouldn't know it reading political coverage of the administration's decision to do the right thing and approve the rule mandating coverage of it.

...Between 2000 and 2008, 36 MILLION women were sexually active, of child bearing age, and did not wish to become pregnant. 17.4 million of them have incomes below 250% of the federal poverty line or are under the age of 20.

What does this mean? Let's break it down another way. Technically, the poverty line in the US for a four person family is $22,350. That's $1,862.50/month. Nearly half of the women previously mentioned in the "sexually active, but not interested in having children" bucket fall below that poverty line. Having an infrastructure that forces a woman to pay up to $50/month for contraception in that budget is a huge burden on families.

What about religious women? Well, 69% of women of all religious denominations who don't want to get pregnant use birth control, including 68% of Catholic women, 73% of mainline Protestants, and 74% of Evangelicals. And birth control is a lot more than contraception for women-- 58% of us use it to manage other medical issues like endometriosis or menstrual disorders.

Today, 1 in 3 women has trouble affording birth control. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of unplanned pregnancies in the industrialized world, and studies show that women who plan their pregnancies are likely to be healthier, seek prenatal care, and have healthier children.

Given all of this, shouldn't the question be why a group of mostly men-- bishops or otherwise-- need an extra-extra special exemption from prioritizing the health of women? Sadly, this is no freak occurrence. When the Obama administration made the misguided decision not to allow Plan B to be sold over the counter, the debate focused exclusively on the way he-- "as a father"-- viewed the idea of 11-year-old girls getting Plan B with their pack of gum. The overwhelming majority of young women who were simply trying to avoid pregnancy or abortion, both far more risky than Plan B, were ignored. And when a collection of almost all men pushed the "Bart Stupak amendment," holding health reform they supposedly supported hostage for the sake of inroads on their anti-choice agenda, the actual impact their amendment would have on women was virtually absent as news coverage lionized these men's dedication to their consciences.

Shouldn't we ask why women's health, our ability to control our lives and bodies and careers, is such a popular political football? Is it because the women who actually are affected have no voice in our political system?

We need to start asking women what they think about birth control getting covered by their insurance.

That makes Virginia state Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) even more of a hero today. BlueVirginia.com calls out a big hooray for gender equity that I want to send too.

As the Virginia State Senate was ready to pass a bill requiring women who seek an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and then be asked whether they wished to view the results and hear the fetal heartbeat, Howell decided the time had come for a bit of gender equity in the General Assembly. So, she proposed an amendment to SB484, which was introduced by Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester). Howell's amendment would have required that men who wished a prescription for the "magic" little blue pill for erectile dysfunction to submit to a digital rectal exam and cardiac stress test to prove they were fit for action.

Only one conservative Democrat, shithead Chuck Colgan of Prince William County, voted with the Republicans, all of whom, of course, voted against Howell's amendment.